Mr. Shyamal Ghosh belonged to the Indian Administrative Service. He was the Chairman of Telecom Commission & Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India from 7th February, 2000 to 31st May, 2002 when he retired from Civil Service. Presently, he is Administrator, Universal Service Obligation Fund, Department of Telecommunications.

Mr. Ghosh holds "Bachelor of Arts (Hons.)" Degree in 'Economics' from "Scottish Church College", Calcutta, securing first position in the college, and Master's Degree in Economics, from Calcutta University, securing second position in the University. He was also awarded Parvin Fellowship by Princeton University, USA for the M.P.A. Programme of Woodrow Wilson School (Princeton University).

Mr. Ghosh has held various senior positions in both the State Government of Gujarat and Government of India. Some of his assignments include Municipal Commissioner, District Magistrate, District Development Officer in Government of Gujarat and Director, Department of Chemicals & Petro Chemicals, Govt. of India during the period 1965-83. He has worked in senior positions such as Joint Secretary, Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Government of India, from 1983-89, Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary (Finance), Industry & Agriculture of Government of Tripura, from 1989-91, Managing Director, Gujarat State Petrochemicals Corporation Limited and Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Gujarat from 1991-95, Director General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce 1995-96, Secretary, Department of Electronics, Government of India,1996-98 Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India from 1998-2000.

He has represented India at various International Conferences and served as a UNIDO Consultant at the International Workshop on Safety in Chemical Industries in Basle in 1990 and presented a paper on Legal Rights of Chemists and Safety Standards at the International Symposium on Chemistry and Safety organized by Kuwait Chemical Society in 1991. 

As Director General Foreign Trade & Ex-Officio Additional Secretary, Government of India, he participated, in India-Australia business forum at Melbourne (Sydney) & in Budget opportunities conference in Singapore 1995. As Secretary, Department of Electronics to the Government of India he was in charge of formulating policy for promoting Electronics Hardware & Software industry including Information Technology related matters and participated in the inaugural session and exhibition of CeBIT, 1997 at HANNOVAR, 15TH General Assembly of the Asia Electronics Union at Seoul, where he led the Indian delegation; he has also led Indian delegations for promotion of IT Industries to Europe, U.S.A. & Japan.

As Secretary, Department of Telecommunications and Chairman, Telecom Commission, he led the Indian delegation to ITU's World Radio Conference-2000 at Istanbul and participated in the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity Conference on 'Digital Divide' at Tokyo in 2000. He led an Indian delegation for Indo-French Joint Committee Meeting on Telecommunications at Paris and for the World Telecom Development Conference in Istanbul in 2002, where he was elected as a Vice-Chairman of the Conference. He also led the Indian delegation to the preparatory Conference for World Summit for Information Society organized by ITU in Geneva in 2002. He presented a paper on "Telecom Reforms in India" at Stanford University, USA. He also addressed the business community, investors and academics at various national and international forums. He has also written several articles for newspapers and journals on various issues relating to Telecom and Information Technology. During his tenure as Chairman, Telecom Commission major reforms in the Telecom Sector were initiated and implemented leading to the complete opening up of the Telecom Sector in India for private sector participation.